Brett Furlonger

A New Approach to Training Teachers to Meet the Diverse Learning Needs of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children within Inclusive Australian Schools.

A restructured postgraduate teacher education programme is described specifically with regard to its commitment to prepare educators to work effectively with deaf and hard‐of‐hearing children in inclusive settings. The focus of the paper is on the design and development process rather than on the evaluation of the outcomes. Background information is provided about the design and development of the programme, including the components that support a strong relationship between special and general educators. The paper details the philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of the programme, planned outcome measures for the graduate teachers, and highlights the challenges in programme design and development.

Forming Effective Partnerships to Facilitate Inclusion of Students with Vision Impairments: Perceptions of a Regular Classroom Teacher and an Itinerant Teacher.

This qualitative study reports on the perceptions of a regular classroom teacher and an itinerant teacher about the challenges they faced in including a student with vision impairment in regular school in New South Wales, Australia. Some of the common strategies employed by both these teachers to address these challenges are discussed.

Attitudes and Self-Efficacy of Pre-Service Teachers towards Inclusion in Pakistan.

This study sought to determine the attitudes and teaching self-efficacy of pre-service teachers towards the inclusion of students with disabilities into regular classrooms. A questionnaire was administered to 194 pre-service Pakistani teachers (male 73, female 121) enrolled in a 1-year teacher education programme at a government university in Pakistan. Overall, male pre-service teachers expressed more positive attitudes than their female counterparts regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classrooms. Surprisingly, those pre-service teachers majoring in special education did not express more positive attitudes towards inclusion than their counterparts who were preparing to teach in mainstream schools. However, participants with training in special education, knowledge of disability legislation, teaching experience and personal experience with a disability reported higher levels of self-efficacy towards teaching within inclusive settings. The findings of the study are discussed with possible implications for policy-makers and teacher educators in Pakistan and other countries in the South Asian region.

Effects of video modeling with video feedback on vocational skills of adults with autism spectrum disorder

ABSTRACT Objective: To examine the effectiveness of a video modeling (VM) with video feedback (VFB) intervention to teach vocational gardening skills to three adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Method: A multiple probe design across skills was used to assess the effects of the intervention on the three participants’ ability to perform skills accurately. Results: The use of VM with VFB led to improvements across skills for two of the participants. The third participant required video prompting (VP) for successful skill acquisition. Skill performance generalized across personnel and settings for two of the participants, but it was not assessed for the third. Skill performance maintained at follow-up for all three participants. Social validity data gathered from participants, parents, and co-workers were positive. Conclusion: These findings suggest that VM with VFB and VP with VFB were effective and socially acceptable interventions for teaching vocational gardening skills to young adults with ASD.

Understanding the Diverse Literacy Needs of Profoundly Deaf Sign-Dominant Adults in Australia

This review explores the literacy difficulties experienced by prelingual, profoundly deaf, sign-dominant adults. A critical overview of the existing literature identifies the importance of understanding their language experiences and word-coding preferences. Findings challenge the notion that a permanent lack of audition from birth prevents individuals from developing efficient strategies for the lexical processing of words and raises the possibility that sign-based word coding could play a central role in proficient word reading for those adults who cannot learn to read by way of the auditory perceptual route. The unique resources needed to assist in the development of the literacy skills of this minority group are discussed.

Teaching Reading Comprehension Skills to a Child with Autism Using Behaviour Skills Training.

A multiple probe design across skills was used to examine the effects of behaviour skills training (BST) on teaching four reading comprehension skills (predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing) to a 7th grade student with autism. Following baseline, the student received 12 sessions of BST during which each skill was taught to criterion. At each session, data was also collected on the accuracy of oral responses to 10 comprehension questions. BST was associated with clear gains in the participant’s performance on each comprehension skill, along with concomitant gains in reading comprehension both on the daily probes and a standardized measure. Skills maintained at follow-up support the conclusion that BST was effective in improving the comprehension skills of a child with autism.

Comparing the effectiveness of virtual reality and video modelling as an intervention strategy for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Brief report

ABSTRACT The increasing numbers of individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has foreshadowed a greater need for effective intervention procedures to aid learning. Purpose: This study compared the effectiveness of video modelling (VM) and virtual reality (VR) for teaching adults with ASD. Methods: Using an alternating treatments design without baseline two participants completed paper folding projects of varying difficulty following exposure to either VM or VR task modelling. The rate of learning (ROL) determined treatment effectiveness. Results: One participant reached mastery criterion for the intermediate project on the 5th trial with both VR and VM (i.e. equal ROL). The other achieved mastery by the 6th trial of VM, but did not attain mastery in VR. Both participants reported enjoying both procedures. Conclusions: The results suggest that VM was more effective than VR in facilitating learning. Implications for future research are discussed.

Using a single-case experimental design to evaluate a cognitive-behavioural self-management counselling intervention

ABSTRACT Arguably one of the most important components of cognitive-behavioural counselling occurs after the client has finished a counselling session when they attempt to convert their goals identified in the clinic into positive behaviour change. However, clients often struggle to implement and complete treatment plans because of difficulties with self-management. Motivated by the increasing demand for evidence of the effectiveness for therapeutic interventions, this study aimed to evaluate a collaboratively designed self-management program using a single-case experimental design with baseline, intervention and 6-month post-intervention follow-up to help a mature-aged individual begin and maintain a higher intensity fitness regime. The dependent variables were distance and time with the goal being able to run 5km non-stop within 30 minutes. After the intervention phase the participant was able to increase his running distance from a baseline mean of 1.36km to the 5km goal in 30 minutes, remaining injury free. Setting targets and making them public appeared to play a role in motivating the participant to complete goals. The explanatory force for adherence to the self-directed program may provide insights in other areas of behaviour, such as compliance with pharmaceutical and dietary regimes.

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS AND READING PROFICIENCY IN ADULTS WITH PROFOUND DEAFNESS

This study investigated differences in the phonological knowledge and reading skill of deaf adults using three experimental conditions that tested sensitivity to syllables, rhyme, and phonemes. Analysis of response latencies and accuracy in the three awareness tasks demonstrated that skilled deaf readers had superior phonological awareness skill to that of less-skilled readers and showed less reliance on orthography when making their phonological judgments. Rhyme had greater independent predictive strength than syllable or phoneme awareness for reading comprehension. Phoneme awareness did not contribute independently to either reading comprehension or word reading, but it did independently predict application of grapheme-phoneme correspondences.